Metal van racking vs ply van racking

When your van is your workspace, it needs to be fit for purpose. From how you organise your tools to how easy it adapts to your requirements - every professional van needs van racking to match. Your gut feeling might be to opt for ply van racking. After all, it's cheaper in the short-term. But don't be fooled by the price tag. In fact, you'll need to spend a lot more money in the long run. From adjusting it to suit your changing needs to its sheer weight compromising your van's fuel efficiency. In this article, we'll explain the differences between ply van racking and metal van racking to help you make the right choice.

Commit to lightweight van racking

When you're considering van racking options, it's so important to find a solution that can be customised for the tools you use and the items you carry, all whilst optimising the fuel efficiency of your vehicle. When you're driving significant distances each day, the price of fuel needs to be factored into your overheads - particularly in the current climate.

As such, we'd always recommend metal van racking over ply van racking. Ply is heavy. This means that it's not only hard to fit and move around, but also significantly increases the weight of your vehicle. bott Smartvan van racking is made from lightweight steel to remove these pain points. In fact, this material is much lighter than most metal van racking available too.

Make sure your van racking provides enough space

How often do you need to move around your van? No matter your trade, the back of your van needs to provide some space. Whether you're carrying out work in it, or simply need extra space in between the racks to secure those larger items.

Our steel van racking is designed so that it can be adjusted to follow the side profiles of your van giving you the extra central load space, without any compromise to the storage capacity in the racking. In contrast, ply van racking is bulky and non adjustable and therefore cannot be customised to fit the profiles of your van. As a result, it wastes a lot of valuable space in your van.

The benefits of no-drill, self-fit van racking

bott modulo3 is a self-fitting van racking system, with simple to follow instructions. And because you don't need to drill the fixing brackets to your van, you won't be damaging your pride and joy. Furthermore, for the electric van market, this is an essential feature, as the risk of drilling into the battery is eliminated. Fixing to the pre-existing fitting points, means you can be confident that it's secure and at the end of your van's life cycle you can simply remove it with no trace of it ever being there.

If you install ply van racking, you're more than likely going to have to use a drill to fix it to the metal panels of your van. You also don't get the customisability of accessories with ply and you tend to be stuck with the layout that you purchase.

Choose quality van racking

"I am so happy with my racking - I would never buy ply racking again. Build quality is second to none and my van has never been so organised."(Michael Kell)

You can't compromise on quality; especially when it comes to your professional workspace. Both you and your clients will benefit from a high quality space that you can rely on. And that's why we maintain consistent quality across our metal van racking and van racking accessories. We only ever use high quality materials that are built to last.

New bott Smartvan customers often comment on the quality of our steel van racking compared with their former ply van racking. Ply racking is often made from poor quality materials, with a short life cycle, having a much wider impact on the environment. Also, there's nothing worse than commuting to your job with that irritating squeak from the ply racking joints rubbing together.

Prioritise safe van racking

Lastly: how safe is your van racking? That's a huge question to ask when you think about the implications of unsafe systems. bott Smartvan van racking is always thoroughly crash tested to comply with EU ECE / R17 ahead of sign off. That means that we can guarantee the safety of your van racking, which further enforces its reputation for longevity.

Ply van racking is not crash test regulated. That means that you can't guarantee its inherent safety. And if your van racking isn't safe, neither are you, your tools or your van.

There are so many reasons to choose metal van racking over ply van racking. Whether you're motivated by price and longevity or safety and quality, investing in bott Smartvan steel van racking will help you to feel confident that your workspace is engineered to adapt, keep you safe and most importantly, last.

To find out more about bott Smartvan modulo3 and the accessories available for your vehicle, start configuring your van racking solution today.